January 3, 1995
TO: INTERNET REMAILER OPERATORS
FROM: THOMAS M. SMALL
COUNSEL FOR RELIGIOUS TECHNOLOGY CENTER AND BRIDGE
PUBLICATIONS, INC.
I represent Religious Technology Center ("RTC"), which
owns the unpublished, confidential Advanced Technology of the
religion of Scientology, and holds exclusive rights under the
copyrights applicable to the Advanced Technology materials.
I also represent Bridge Publications, Inc., which holds the
exclusive right to print, publish and sell various
non-confidential works by the founder of the Scientology
religion, L. Ron Hubbard, and to make and publish
compilations and derivative works of and from those works and
to enforce all rights in them.
It has come to my attention that there are two
alternate newsgroups on the Internet to which individuals
have been annonymously posting certain of my clients'
published and unpublished copyrighted materials, including
certain of the confidential Advanced Technology materials.
These confidential materials being posted were stolen from
my client. There is reason to believe that the materials
which are uploaded by these users may also be downloaded by
other users, and that these activities may be occurring
through the systems which are linked into the Internet.
The two newsgroups into which these materials are being
copied are alt.technology.clearing and alt.religion.
Scientology.
We request your assistance in dealing with the problem.
The spread of infringements and misappropriations by the
users will be lessened if you lock out from your systems the
two newsgroups involved, alt.religion.scientology and
alt.technology.clearing, limiting the potential for reposting
and downloading. It will then be easier to deal with the
intentional infringers through appropriate channels.
Both the uploading and downloading of these materials
constitute unauthorized copying and distribution of the
materials in violation of our clients' rights under United
States copyright laws and the law of other countries, where
applicable. Damages and an injunction against further
unauthorized copying and distribution may be obtained against
infringers and, all unauthorized copies and all materials and
equipment by which the unauthorized copies may be reproduced
can be impounded. Unauthorized disclosure of the
confidential Advanced Technology materials also violates
applicable trade secrets laws.
Action is being taken directly with the systems users
who we know are primarily responsible for these violations of
my clients' rights. We hope those actions will put an end to
the infringements by these users. We do {not} wish to
involve others in litigation. Unfortunately, however, such
actions will be unavoidable where there is contributory
infringement by those who knowingly induce or contribute to
the infringing conduct of these users by providing facilities
or systems that enable the direct infringers to infringe,
because we legally must take all actions to protect our
clients' property rights. Courts are holding such
contributory infringers liable. Two examples are: Sega
Enterprises Ltd. v. Maphia BBS, 30 U.S.P.Q. 2d 1921 (N.D.
Cal. 1994) and Playboy Enterprises v. Frena, 839 F. Supp.
1152 (M.D. Fla. 1993).
Recent proposed legislation regarding potential
liability of systems operators and others who provide
facilities or services, such as annonymous remailers, for
information passing through their systems has understandably
created concern on the part of systems operators as a
potential liability. We ask your voluntary assistance in
dealing with these known wilful infringers so that we can
both deal with the problem without legal hassles, and legal
liability can be confined to those who intend to create the
situation.
We ask that you confirm that you have blocked access to
these newsgroups through your remailer. If you are unwilling
to do so, we ask that you inform us as to the reasons for
your position.
Sincerely,
Thomas M. Small